Quick Hits: Strike Zone, Reds, Twins

MLB’s competition committee has agreed to changes in the strike zone and the intentional walk that could go into effect next season, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark. The changes would raise the strike zone slightly, from the bottom of the hitter’s knees to the top, thus creating a smaller zone for hitters and likely increasing offense. Also as a result of the proposed changes, a team could immediately issue an intentional walk without throwing the requisite four pitches. The changes must next be approved by MLB’s playing rules committee, which is led by Mets GM Sandy Alderson. Here are more quick notes from around the game.

Twins GM Terry Ryan still supports manager Paul Molitor despite the team’s 10-31 start, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press writes. “I’m in this with (Molitor); we’re joined at the hip,” says Ryan. “No one’s pointing fingers around here. I’ve got to do a better job. The club has to do a better job. It starts with my chair. I’m aware of that. I take that as serious as anything because I’m the one that makes the decisions.” Molitor, of course, took the Twins managerial job last year and led the club to its first winning season since 2010. But this season, in which he’s presided over a club that’s last in the AL in both runs scored and runs allowed, has been a trying one.

@ Yankees500
You just rehashed the exact recipe Ruben Amaro used to get himself fired last season. 🙂 Billingsley might still be worth a shot, dependent on a clean health assessment. Harang also showed some flashes last season before he wore down. You can stick a fork in those other starters.

Sigh…They keep dumbing the game down…If you want to issue an intentional walk, THROW THE BALL. If the pitcher can’t throw 4 easy tosses to the catcher, he’s got no business being on the mound. And those easy tosses aren’t affecting his pitch count….no different than a warmup pitch.

Speeding the game up, because if we shave another 90 seconds off of a game, people who think baseball is boring will suddenly understand why throwing an 2-0 curveball for a called strike is interesting.

The balls and strikes need to be called by computer. The umps appear to be more inconsistent than ever. Offense would go up if there was ONE consistent strikezone and every ump didn’t call slightly differently. Sad to see a hitter get in an 0-2 count on pitches that Foxtract shows about four inches off the plate. It totally changes a hitters approach then (in most cases).

The Reds bullpen is possibly the worst in history. They would be perhaps a .500 team or maybe better if the bullpen hadn’t blown games every chance they got. They need to try something radical in order to fix things. I would suggest going old school and stretching out their pitchers to pitch complete games up to 150 pitches if necessary. Go to a 7 man rotation to give extra rest and go with a smaller token bullpen that would just be used in blowouts or in case of injury. At the very least since they have many starting pitching options, it would give them a better idea of who will stay and who will go in 2017. They need to do something because their bullpen is only giving relief to the opposing manager.

With SIX (6!), yes, SIX, starting pitchers already on the DL, do you really think forcing young pitchers to throw 150 pitches a game is really a good idea for the current and future health of the organization?

You’re right, it’s much better to continue sending out mediocre relievers to constantly waste the efforts of those starters. They had more than FIFTEEN (15!), yes, FIFTEEN, candidates for the starting rotation in spring training, so six on the DL is actually a good thing because it gives them a chance to take a look at other guys.

Those pitchers wound up on the DL when they were operating on a regular pitch count. Just wanted to point that out because you seem to have missed that. People often forget that pitchers are getting injured a lot more than they used to despite the fact that they are pitching less. Right now what do they have to lose?

15 by who’s count? If there really were 15, those who aren’t already hurt weren’t any good either. So while you’re criticizing throwing mediocre relievers out there, you’d be ok with running mediocre starters from spring training out there?

How is six people on the DL ever a good thing? No, it does not give them a chance to look at the young pitchers of those young pitchers aren’t ready.

And your logic of “they got hurt throwing less so make them throw more” is just all kinds of backwards. Yes, they did get on the DL with regular pitch counts. How would making pitchers throw more help anything? And if the argument is pitch count doesn’t matter, there are plenty of medical opinions and research out there that says it 100% does matter

No team is going to allow its pitchers to throw that many pitches. No free agent pitcher ever would consider Cincinnati if that happened and few amateurs would sign with the Reds knowing their careers would be jeopardized.

The Reds front office likely isn’t terribly concerned about the bullpen. The goal is to win in 2017 or 2018, with 2016 a lost cause used for nothing more than securing the highest draft position possible.

Teams used to have a 4 man rotation and pitchers would get 25 or more complete games in a season. Believe it or not, most of those men did not have their arms fall off and turn to dust. Free agent pitchers will go wherever the money is. I do not understand where the career in jeopardy angle ever came from, but you really need to learn what actually happened in the past and not what some people have led you to believe.

BTW, whose goal would that be? Yours? Because the Reds owner has said that the goal is to win EVERY year.

I would wager that pitching is a hell of a lot harder now. Pitchers have to throw harder and with more movement than ever to stay competitive. The game has changed.

You really think teams can get 150 injury free pitches a night from their guys, but all thirty teams have just decided not to? Like some sort of conspiracy? Teams would have so much more flexibility if they could do that, but they don’t. I’m sure everyone in baseball knows the record for complete games in a season is around 80, the fact that no one throws even 10 anymore just shows the evolution of the game.

Yes, that was back in the days when pitchers didn’t throw nearly as hard as they do today. Look up the strikeout numbers of guys in the 70s. They didnt throw hard, they didn’t strike guys out. Easier to throw like that.

Of course that’s what he’s said. That’s what they always say. Cutting payroll and playing young players says otherwise. And to your “old pitchers used to…” comment. Guess what, the times have changed. No one lets their young pitchers throw 150 pitches.

Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver and JR Richard were as good, if not better, strikeout pitchers than anyone pitching today. They didn’t need to throw it harder than their arms could handle, because THEY KNEW HOW TO PITCH. Pitching is not now, nor has it ever been, throwing the ball as hard as you can. It is all about location.

I didn’t say 150 pitches EVERY night. Of course it won’t take that many every night. in fact it would rarely take that many. I said, if necessary it wouldn’t kill them. Ideally the goal is to quit walking so many batters so guys can keep their pitch count down to 110-120. Everyone loves Joe Maddon for thinking against the grain in all things baseball, but God forbid if anyone ever threatens the idea of pitch counts, which have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to lessen pitching injuries. If anything there are far more pitching injuries now. But you all would rather make fun of me for thinking like an old guy instead of actually thinking outside your pitch count box. That’s fine, keep trying to reinvent the wheel. Some of us are smart enough to look at old designs instead of constantly trying to come up with new ideas that aren’t working. Whatever, I’m done.

can’t even begin to imagine the numbers Harper and Trout would start to put up with a smaller zone they are already immensely talented at hitting the low strikezone ball bringing it up is just going to be like teeing them up.

Probably the same numbers they are putting up now. It’s about a 2 inch difference from the bottom of the knee to the top of the knee. With seemingly every umpire having a different zone and calling what they want, it most likely won’t make a difference.

The Reds were not going to have a good season if everything went right. Then the injuries hit…Mesoraco, Iglesias, DeSclafani, Bailey and several others. The bullpen became worse than anyone imagined and maybe the worst of all time. Things should be better in 2018.

Even if you change the strike zone, you can’t change the tendencies of umpires who have been around the league for years. They’re probably going to call pitches the same way they have been calling them for years.